📽️ ‘American Martyr’: Slain Priest’s Canonization Cause Hits The Big Screen 🔌

 

Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.

OKLAHOMA CITY — María Ruiz Scaperlanda is looking for a miracle.

More specifically, she’s seeking a miracle that can be attributed — and authenticated — to the intercession of Blessed Stanley Francis Rother.

That’s the final step for Rother — the first person born in the United States to be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church — to become a saint.

“I want everyone to know that we need a miracle,” said Scaperlanda, 66, the promoter of Rother’s canonization cause and author of “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run,” a 2015 biography of Rother. “There’s a lot of people out there who need a miracle, so please do it through his intercession.”

As Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley told me in 2023, the Catholic Church’s process for confirming a miracle is “very rigorous.”

“It could be a long while,” Coakley said then. “It may never happen, for all we know, because we can’t predict how God is going to act.”

For her part, Scaperlanda is hopeful that “American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story” — a new feature-length documentary narrated by actor Martin Sheen — will expose Rother’s story to more people. 

The film premieres in theaters Aug. 25 and 26 in English and Aug. 27 in Spanish.

An Oklahoma farm boy who grew up to become a priest, Rother spent 13 years as a missionary to Guatemala. He died in 1981 at age 46 when three masked assassins entered his rectory during that Central American nation’s civil war.

I first wrote about Rother in 2001 during my time as religion editor for The Oklahoman. In 2017, I did a Religion News Service feature on the love for “Father Stan” in his hometown of Okarche, Oklahoma, and covered his beatification ceremony. And in 2023, I reported for The Associated Press on the dedication of a $50 million shrine in Oklahoma City that honors Rother.

Scaperlanda and her husband, Michael, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City’s chancellor, both served as executive producers of “American Martyr.” 

I talked to the Cuban-born author and journalist about her work to promote Rother’s cause. These highlights from our interview have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity:

María Ruiz Scaperlanda is the author of “The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run,” a 2015 biography of Blessed Stanley Francis Rother, and an executive producer of “American Martyr: The Stanley Rother Story,” a new feature-length documentary. (Photo provided by María Ruiz Scaperlanda)

On how she first learned about Rother

“We moved to Oklahoma and lived in Norman because Michael taught at the University of Oklahoma Law School for 30 years. Our four kids, who are now adults, were young at the time. And they would come home from their Catholic school with stories about this diocesan priest who died in Oklahoma City. 

“He was already being called a martyr. It’s kind of phenomenal — those teachers who kept the story going — because nothing else was going on. There was no cause. They were literally using him as a local guy, as an example of how we should live our lives.

“As a journalist, I was intrigued. So anyway, I did a few small stories, and then over the years, I just stayed with the story.”

On the 1-hour, 46-minute documentary

“At the beatification, there was a shorter film that was shown right before the Mass. It was 18 minutes long, and it was literally an introduction. But it had beautiful scenery from Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, and from people who knew him there. It was just really well done.

“The group that did that film is called Lampstand. They do faith stories. They did such a good job with that, and they’re the ones that did this documentary with the archdiocese. 

“It’s very well done. You get such a sense of the life of Father Stan here in Oklahoma from the things they show you and how they show them. But also in Guatemala, they have some great cinematography there. It’s amazing what you can do with drones and all those things. But I think that it’s a beautiful film.”

Blessed Stanley Frrancis Rother served as a missionary priest in Guatemala for 13 years. (Photo provided by Archdiocese of Oklahoma City)

On working with Sheen, who played President Josiah Bartlet on NBC’s “West Wing”

“Martin Sheen is wonderful. Actually, I asked a friend who had worked with him if he would be willing to read what at the time was a feature film script. So we sent that to him with my book.

“So he called my house and said, ‘I love this story. I love this book. Dump the screenplay, and simply think of how to do a documentary.’ Over time, he volunteered to be the voice of the documentary, and he even did that pro bono.

“We went out to Malibu, California, to his house, and in his back yard, he has his own personal studio, where he recorded his narration. On this particular trip, we spent the whole afternoon with him, and he told us he was going to the 5 o’clock Mass the next day. And Michael and I celebrated Mass at Our Lady of Malibu with him and then took him and his wife out to eat that night.”

On the purpose behind the film

“I see it as another tool for people to get to know him. 

“We have my book. We have a small book of letters that our archdiocese did many, many years ago. And this brings in a visual — a documentary where you can see all the places and see all the faces of the people, their emotion.

“It’s just another way, but a really practical and enjoyable way, to put his story out there and why it is that we’re doing this. Because at the end of the documentary, we talk about his cause. And I want everyone to know that we need a miracle.”

Anyone wanting to report a miracle involving Rother’s intercession can fill out this form.

Inside The Godbeat

Top Republicans are escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric, according to Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins and Ulaa Kuziez.

At the New York Times — four reporters, including religion writer Ruth Graham — detail what the newspaper characterizes as “Islamophobia’s rise in Texas.”

In Dearborn, Michigan, multiple arrests were made this week “as hundreds gathered for a visit by self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang, his latest stop in the predominantly Arab American community in recent months,”  the Detroit News’ Kara Berg and Julia Cardi report.

The Final Plug

The Baltimore Orioles hosted their latest Christian Faith Night this week and generated a bit of social media buzz over it.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.

 
Religion News, Religion, Weekend Plug-In, Catholicism, Crime, HistoryBobby Ross Jr.Bobby Ross Jr., bobby ross jr., Bobby Ross Jr, Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, Blessed Stanley Francis Rother, Father Stan, Okarche Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Guatemala, American Martyr, slain priest, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, documentariesComment